Last episode of Impact! to air this Friday

[Nightfall 0]

It appears TNA's run on the Fox Sports Network will end with this Friday's episode of Impact!, scheduled for 5/27 at 4 PM. Impact! is not listed for the following Friday 6/3 on Fox Sports, with the timeslot instead filled by "The World Series of Darts."

 

There are no listings for TNA anywhere on Fox Sports' schedule for the months of June and July, which is as far as the schedules are posted on The Fox Sports website. TNA had taped two episodes of Impact! at the last taping at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida on 5/17, so with nothing "in the can" so to speak, it appears that the company will be going dark, with the exception of their scheduled PPVs this summer.

 

In recent weeks, there have been a lot of rumors about the future of TNA's home on television. While no one seems to be certain for sure, the story making the rounds within TNA was that some sort of announcement would be made within the next 7-10 days about their TV situation.

 

I do know that conversations had been ongoing with WGN and Spike TV in recent weeks, with many inside TNA believing that WGN was the stronger of the two possibilities. There has been nothing but optimism from those I have spoken to within the company, so for their sake, hopefully that optimism won't be for naught.

 

That's not to say all signs have been negative for the future of the company. Last week, TNA signed both NWA champion AJ Styles and X-Division champion Christopher Daniels to new deals through 2007 and also announced plans for an August PPV event, titled Sacrifice. There are still dates listed at Universal Studios through 7/19 as well, although that could change given their TV status.

 

Positive or negative, PWInsider.com will have more on TNA's TV situation as it develops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This sucks, I hope they get some new tv soon. Do they still have that syndicated show? I haven't heard anything about it for a while now. Maybe they'll go back to ppvs every week until they get a new tv deal.

[The Decemberists 0]

They must having a deal lined up with someone if they've let the FSN deal lapse...

 

I know Panda doesn't seem to mind losing money hand over foot, without any tv apart from Xplosion that might be too much even for them to deal with.

[JHawk 0]

And if the deal with WGN is officially announced, I'll probably never see TNA again, and neither will fans in markets like NYC and Boston.

 

Please say Spike TV's picking up the slack here.

[Fro 0]

Considering they couldn't be on Spike TV until the fall, I'd say a deal with the Tribune (WGN), at least for a few months is their only option.

 

I fully expect a deal to be announced today, in time for them to insert an announcement on the last Impact show.

 

I hope for the sake of all the people in the Northeast whining about not getting WGN that it includes a syndicated version of the show that the Tribune can put on the stations they own in NYC (WPIX), Boston(WLVI), Hartford, Albany, DC (WBDC), Harrisburg and Philly (WPHL).

 

This could also reach Tribune-owned stations in Seattle, Portland, LA, San Diego, and Sacramento.

[Celtic Guardian 0]

Considering they couldn't be on Spike TV until the fall, I'd say a deal with the Tribune (WGN), at least for a few months is their only option.

 

I fully expect a deal to be announced today, in time for them to insert an announcement on the last Impact show.

 

It's very doubtful that Fox Sports Net would allow an announcement about TNA Wrestling moving to an opposition station to run on the final FSN version of Impact. TNA and WGN (should it be WGN) will probably have to get any such word out themselves elsewhere.

[Fro 0]

It's pretty much standard operating procedure to say which network you're leaving for on your last show.

 

Letterman mentioned he was leaving NBC for CBS, WWE mentioned they were moving to TNN, sports teams mention when their next broadcast is, even if it's on a different network.

 

Furthermore, since TNA paid for the timeslot, they can say whatever they want.

[TNABaddboi 0]

I still can't believe they haven't made an annoucement. If they are still waiting to hear from Spike, at this point they might need to consider cutting there losses and hooking up with WGN. They are already going to loss a week of build for the PPV apparently, but if they don't act soon, they could loss the whole time. And even if they really want Spike, the WGN is just as good for them as the FSN deal was. It's almost a tradeoff, yes, FSN has more penetration, but with WGN, you're not paying, have a primetime, steady spot and a longer programming block to establish your stars. TAKE THE DEAL ALREADY TNA! Sorry, that's the end of my rant. But I do hope they have a plan.

[Astro101 0]

I think it's worth it to wait for Spike...but just for a few more days. But I agree, WGN is as good as FSN, but with primetime! So if nothing happens, there's always WGN.

[TNABaddboi 0]

Here's an update from PWInsider.com:

 

Regarding PWInsider.com's story about the end of TNA's one year run on The Fox Sports Network, TNA's original deal was a 52 week agreement, so it's their deal running out and not being renewed. According to a well placed source in the TV industry, WGN has no wrestling-related programming scheduled for June, so it appears barring a last minute change, TNA will be off TV for at least some time period.

 

This is bad....I don't think there's any other way to look it at.

[Fro 0]

They're not scheduled because there's no announced deal yet.

 

They're going to have no problem clearing the Monday Night timeslot because it's just crappy movies at this point.

 

There is no first-run programming, or even syndicated programming that they have to axe or move to make room for TNA.

[eirejmcmahon 0]

Is it the deal not being renewed or TNA chosing not to renew the deal (with FSN) ?

[Astro101 0]

I think it's TNA choosing not to. I believe I read that FSN wanted to renew, but of course that would mean TNA had to pay to stay on the air. I think they'd rather not pay the 30k a week and try to get a prime time deal.

[RedJed 0]

I think it's TNA choosing not to. I believe I read that FSN wanted to renew, but of course that would mean TNA had to pay to stay on the air. I think they'd rather not pay the 30k a week and try to get a prime time deal.

Not only was it the same deal but they had to sign up for at least 6 months minimum. I dont blame TNA for not resigning - they tried it, it didnt work.

 

I expect a few weeks downtime with them getting on WGN which isnt good as they need more airtime to promote the next ppv. Fortunately they built up some of the main matches somewhat already for the show, but it still is nothing but a bad thing if TNA wont have that show as their outlet to promote the next ppv right now, especially since its a pretty big one. They will still have Xplosion though, which might temporarily become an Impact of sorts, that is if they dont cancel that next TV taping on Tuesday. Otherwise I would imagine Xplosion would just turn out to be nothing but a Best of TNA show for now or something, who knows.

 

Obviously though, if a decision hasnt been made yet on any new place (which might I add is fucking ridiculous) they wont make it on WGN this Monday or anything. If they get a deal done with WGN by weeks end though, they could tape TV next Tuesday for a 6/6 startdate, which wouldnt be too bad. One thing that sucks though is unless its done like right now, I can't see how TNA will even be able to properly promote a move to WGN if all of the Impact broadcasts this weekend on FSN dont have some sort of promo for the move.

[spman 0]

I don't know about anyone else, but I know my cable company doesn't get Fox Sports, so I never got ot see Impact!, and I'm under the impression that even fewer people get WGN, is this the final nail in the coffin for TNA?

[Fro 0]

WGN is on in more homes (65 million+) than Nitro was when it started. It's on in virtually every cable system in the Midwest and most of them in Southeast. It is usually a lower numbered station on most cable systems. It's not going to be a big problem.

 

They're going to have a much, much higher profile than on Fox Sports Net, trust me. They are going to have a constant timeslot, in prime-time, when people actually watch TV instead of 4 pm, 1 am on Saturday Nights, and Midnight on Thursday night.

 

They can't start on 6/6 because there is a Cubs baseball game in that timeslot (one of three games during the summer where TNA could possibly be preempted and then the schedule is *completely* clear for them).

[Guest Joe_G]

Here's what Meltzer said today"

 

--The final TNA broadcast on FSN will be airing this weekend. TNA has not come to a new TV deal, and as thing stand, they will be off television for at least a few weeks. A WGN deal is said to be probable, but there is no start date and there are still things to be worked out. There is hope an announcement of the new deal could be made before the end of this week. It has not yet been announced that Tuesday's TV tapings in Orlando are canceled, but that is likely as there is no outlet to air the shows. However, even though it doesn't look like they'll have any TV for the few weeks leading to the show, the Slammiversary card is going on as scheduled. We've got tons more on this in the new issue.

 

Yikes, that PPV could be disastrous.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I know my cable company doesn't get Fox Sports, so I never got ot see Impact!, and I'm under the impression that even fewer people get WGN, is this the final nail in the coffin for TNA?

 

Fewer people do get WGN, notably New York and the Northeast, two big wrestling markets. At the same time, TNA won't have to pay for this timeslot (not sure about the television production costs) and primetime is a lot better than what they had. I honestly think it'll all even out at the end, and PPV's will probably stay at what they've been doing the past few months.

[Elbarto997 0]

I guess Friday means the last call of the iMPACT Thoughtzz. Man, right when the World Title hunt opens its doors, the Cable TV deal shuts.

 

If TNA's going to go quality over quantity with the Spike TV deal, then the only thing they can do is go back to their roots and make weekly $10 PPVs.

[TNABaddboi 0]

If TNA's going to go quality over quantity with the Spike TV deal, then the only thing they can do is go back to their roots and make weekly $10 PPVs.

 

Would that even be possible? That's certainly not desirable, but even that would be better than nothing. I wonder how much they had to pay to offer that 1 cent PPV awhile back...if they could do that again, they could tape the rest of the PPV build next Tuesday and offer it on PPV. Just a wild guess, I know, but I can't believe they're going dark with 3 weeks until a major event. Another option they have would be to make Xplosion the A show until they work out a deal, though I don't know how viable an option that is because I don't know how well they've kept up the syndicated network. I know we got it in Atlanta for awhile, but I haven't looked for it in so long, I don't know if it still airs. Either way, I think that would be a better option then cancelling the taping and going dark.

[Astro101 0]

How about TNA stream iMPACT! for at least a week or two if there's no deal? The fans will still get to watch at Orlando and the internet fans who already watch the show will still be able to see the building of the storylines.

[CBright7831 0]

with the timeslot instead filled by "The World Series of Darts."

Who the hell actually watches this shit?

[RedJed 0]

How about TNA stream iMPACT! for at least a week or two if there's no deal? The fans will still get to watch at Orlando and the internet fans who already watch the show will still be able to see the building of the storylines.

They could do that - plus more. Not only should they still do the Impact taping next Tuesday for the next two weeks (and then aim for a live 6/13 startdate on WGN) but Xplosion should just become Impact as of next week and for the future. I think TNA should consider upping the syndicated markets that air Xplosion too ASAP to offset for this hiatus (like try to get on more markets for next weekend), even if its just for a few weeks that this is, they need to do something in the mean time. Make a point to announce on the last Impact on FSN that Impact will now be strictly syndicated in Xplosion's place (which currently is nothing more than a repeat of Impact anyway with commentary by Douglas and Borash) and to go to the website for more information including a listing of all stations that will air it from now on, and also of course mention that the show will also air a feed of the show the next week as well.

 

Spending $10,000-$15,000 a week on extra syndication isnt a bad idea (and then they can sell their own ads on there to offset costs better) to get TNA's name out there a little more and if they can get on more major markets quick, they can use that as a primary vehicle to get the word out that TNA will be on WGN Monday nights and then once it's on WGN, they can tape Impact the same night that they do the Monday night show(s) - in the same effect how Raw always tapes Heat every week. If TNA has three hours of TV to promote their ppvs every week, that would be something else and this company might go somewhere long term if the writing is good, the Monday night show is quality and then they have a good weekend syndicated show in alot of markets with Impact. But yeah also stream the shows over the internet temporarily too til the WGN deal starts, no doubt about it.

[TNABaddboi 0]

Not only should they still do the Impact taping next Tuesday for the next two weeks (and then aim for a live 6/13 startdate on WGN) but Xplosion should just become Impact as of next week and for the future. I think TNA should consider upping the syndicated markets that air Xplosion too ASAP to offset for this hiatus (like try to get on more markets for next weekend), even if its just for a few weeks that this is, they need to do something in the mean time. Make a point to announce on the last Impact on FSN that Impact will now be strictly syndicated in Xplosion's place (which currently is nothing more than a repeat of Impact anyway with commentary by Douglas and Borash) and to go to the website for more information including a listing of all stations that will air it from now on, and also of course mention that the show will also air a feed of the show the next week as well.

 

I think they should do the taping and air it in Xplosion's place. As it is, Xplosion really hasn't served much purpose with the Impact replays and replacing it in the syndicated line-up with Impact would be a good start. They'd have to be careful not to still call it Xplosion though, because that has been branded a useless recap show. If they announce on Friday that Impact will be moving to syndication and check the website for broadcast info and then when the new show debuts, give it a different name, I think they'd be ok.

 

That'd certainly be better than going completely dark. They have only set up half the PPV card. There aren't even any angles set up where you could see what they'd do for the rest of the card, so I'd think that if they don't have a deal in place to not miss more than one week of cable broadcast, they'd basically have no choice, or they'd risk killing the Slam buyrate. And since HJ only did 16,500 (I think I saw that number from Meltzer), they'd be wise not to run that risk, or they'd dip back into weekly era type numbers (which I don't think ever topped 10,000, except maybe the first show).

 

I do like your idea of moving Impact to syndication permanently and using it to run secondary angles. That way they can maximize the talent roster and set up the lower card PPV angles, and as long as they run highlights of what happened on Impact on the prime time, people who didn't get the show would still no what was going on.

[Scroby 0]

Honestly, I really hope TNA doesn't go to WGN. I live out in California and I haven't even heard of WGN until recently and its only because TNA was thinking about moving to that network. So If TNA goes to WGN, I'm basically screwed out of TNA. I really hope they go to Spike. WGN would be hurtful to TNA in the long run, I would think.

[Fro 0]

Honestly, I really hope TNA doesn't go to WGN. I live out in California and I haven't even heard of WGN until recently and its only because TNA was thinking about moving to that network. So If TNA goes to WGN, I'm basically screwed out of TNA. I really hope they go to Spike. WGN would be hurtful to TNA in the long run, I would think.

No, because reaching 70% of the country in a great time slot on a network some people watch, at a time people are actually watching TV >>> reaching 90% of the country in a terrible time slot on a network people don't watch, at a time nobody is watching TV.

[RedJed 0]

Honestly, I really hope TNA doesn't go to WGN. I live out in California and I haven't even heard of WGN until recently and its only because TNA was thinking about moving to that network. So If TNA goes to WGN, I'm basically screwed out of TNA. I really hope they go to Spike. WGN would be hurtful to TNA in the long run, I would think.

No, because reaching 70% of the country in a great time slot on a network some people watch, at a time people are actually watching TV >>> reaching 90% of the country in a terrible time slot on a network people don't watch, at a time nobody is watching TV.

Yeah it's weird, at first when I heard they might go to WGN I thought it was a horrible idea, but if they get primetime AND they dont have to pay for it, it will better serve them than the FSN thing in the long run as they wont bleed finances off paying to air the weekly show and I think WGN has enough penetration in the market (even though at this point it's a station that is just kind of there) that if the word of mouth with wrestling fans is big enough with TNA, in due time they COULD get some decent ratings off the show. But they'll have to be patient and WGN will have to do what they can as well to get the word spread that the show is on their station.

 

Mostly every major cable system does have WGN, the thing is alot of people dont even know it or pay attention to the fact since it's only redeeming quality is Cubs games. Also both dish providers have it which I think is strong. I think WGN has enough connections within the industry as well (newspaper, TV, other media) where if they see the show is going to go somewhere, they will advertise it or spread the word in different ways, especially if part of the deal is that they get the money from advertising on the show. That would make them want to make the show a viable commodity.

 

Plus like I said before, we get the Monday Night Wars again which just makes it all the better for us wrestling fans.

[Carnival 0]

I have a bad feeling that this is the death blow to TNA.

 

I hope not.

[Jericholic82 0]

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!

[Jericholic82 0]

I don't even get explosion so I guess I won't see TNA for awhile, as I don't order the ppvs.

[Fro 0]

Meltzer sez:

 

As noted yesterday, with the contract expiring and not being renewed, this is the final weekend for TNA on FSN. They were trying to close the deal with WGN yesterday, and have more negotiations today. When the deal is closed, there will be an announcement made very quickly.

 

Odds look pretty good that there will not be a lot of downtime for them, however they're not going to be able to make a live show on Memorial Day at this point, so the first Monday night show will be on June 13th.

 

I would guess they may tape a "special preview" or something of TNA to air on sometime on WGN during the week of the 6th of June (probably Tuesday night?) at the scheduled Impact tapings next week.

[eirejmcmahon 0]

So they're now negotiating a deal with WGN from a postion of desperation - nice move lads!